First Day in Our New School

Wow! Our new home was definitely worth the wait . . . Funds from FEMA provided the financial assistance to ensure our facility would be first rate. The current school construction project in New Orleans is the largest in Louisiana since the Civil War and one of the largest in the nation’s history (according to www.educationnext.org): 85 campuses are being constructed or overhauled at a cost of about $2 billion. Fannie C. Williams Charter School is one of these sites. The expressions on the faces of students as they entered for the first time on Monday, October 22nd said it all. This is the type of building all children should attend school.

These schools are being constructed to last a century or more, just as many of our former sites did that were constructed under noted New Orleans architect E. A. Christy in the early decades of the 20th century (Rabouin, Don McNair, McMain, Valena C. Jones, Fortier, Frantz, Lockett, Booker T. Washington, to name a few). Our new home is among the first public buildings that meet the LEED “silver” standard for “greenness.” It is also elevated above flood levels. The ground floor is terrazzo so that it can be easily scrubbed down and bleached if flooding occurs. The electrical system originates on the upper level and flow-down the building. The air-conditioning and heating systems are zoned to help keep down costs in the event only a portion of the building is being utilized.

View these photos of our new learning facility as we start our new educational life in our new home.